The Hilton and Coming Home

This will be the last blog and I will cover our last day in Rome and our trip home.


Today after getting up and dressed, we finished repacking our suitcases. Then it was down to breakfast. We came back to the room made sure everything was ready to go and went down to the desk and checked out. The car came shortly thereafter and away we went toward the Hilton at the airport. The ride was smooth and quick, since it was an Italian holiday. The traffic was almost non existent. The hotel is located right at the airport and we could walk to it, under cover in case of rain.


The room is very nice and we were upgraded to a very nice room with access to the executive lounge. This proved to be a real gem. After checking in we walked over to the airport to check it out. While we were there, trying to find our terminal, we found out that you can not walk to terminal 5. Terminal 5 is where all the US bound flights originate and terminate. More on this later. While we were in the terminal building 3 we stopped at Mc Donald’s and had a coke and french-fries. They really tasted good.


Coming back to the hotel we tried out the executive lounge and it is nice. They have free snacks and drinks 24 hours a day. I don’t like 2 4/7. The drinks were water, juice soda, beer and wine. At 3:00PM they bring in sandwiches and deserts for tea. Then at 6:00 PM they provide heavy hors d’ oeuvres. We managed to participate in all of it. The food was good and all you could eat.


On Thursday we left a call for 6:30 AM. After getting up, showered and dressed we went down to breakfast in the lounge. Again it was well stocked and very good. The only complaint we had in Italy about the food was the bacon. It is like thin ham here, but not cooked very long. We like are bacon crisp.


After breakfast we finished with our suitcases and went down to check out. After checking out we took the van to what we thought was terminal 5. Here we showed our passports, got a sticker on them and then went out another door and caught a bus to another terminal. Here we got off and pulled our bags to the ticket counter. After checking them in and getting a boarding pass we went to customs for me to get a stamp on a tax free document. Now it was almost take your clothes off and go through security. After passing that test it was up stairs to the waiting lounge. We were traveling Business class, so we had a pass to United’s lounge. We could get snacks, sweet rolls and beverages here, plus nice seats.


When it was time for us to leave, it was again down stairs, into a bus and ride out to the airplane. No Jet-ways, so it was carry your bags up the stairs into the airplane.


We were in Business class as I said. The seats were comfortable, not as nice as when we flew to London. The flight departed about ½ hour late which is good for international flights. The flight across the pond was fairly smooth and we made up some time and landed in Washington DC just about on schedule.


After landing we headed for immigration and the lines that form there. Getting through there we picked up our luggage and went through customs. Now we checked our bags for the flight home and started undressing again for security here in the US. I make it sounds worse that it was. It was take your belt off, shoes off, empty your pockets and take your computer out of its case. Passing this we again dressed and started walking to our new gate in a new terminal. We went down stairs caught the tram to our terminal. Here we walked upstairs, then along many halls, upstairs again and the down stairs. More walking. Why do we always end up at the last gate? We are now all settled in a seat in the waiting area, when the announcement that all travelers fear. Your plane has been delayed due to weather. Oh well, we did not want to fly in a thunderstorm anyway. We got on the plane about 30 minutes late and departed about an hour late, which was not too bad. The flight was good for the most part, just one area of bumps. We arrived in Kansas City about 8:00 PM, an hour late to nice weather. Jackie, the nice lady that house sits for me, picked us up and we headed for home.


We are tired and our internal clocks are off, but it was a wonderful trip and after we get rested we will be ready to head out again. Not next week.